«It is through knowledge of their own history and traditions of their ancestors that people can attain a positive life attitude, and our task is to transmit even the hard times of crises without a negative esteem in the form of serious analytics needed to understand and develop the lessons of the past.
The positive resource of historical-cultural knowledge overweights on the scales of the historical experience in any case. Traditions, morals, customs and examples of good neighborly relations all require careful and detailed study.
This way - by learning on the mistakes of the past and developing the line of successes – we can achieve success in preserving our heritage and consolidating the place our peoples take in the world of modernity. To go forth and win one need to be restless in a good sense, because the road is only conquered by the one who walks it».

Mussa Ekzekov
The President of the
International Association «Alashara»

Eduard Chachev since the birth had an example of the real defender of the Fatherland. His father, Kumal Khamidovich, a veteran of World War II, a holder of the Order of the Red Banner and Glory and a medal “For Courage” was described in the front-line newspaper as following: “One in the field can be without shield.” That was in 1945, when the gunner Kumal Chachev, was left alone with his gun but he affronted the enemy and went on killing the Nazis and was able to hold his position.

The situation with the release of textbooks in native languages has greatly been improved in Karachai-Cherkess Republic.

In the schools of the country languages of the following nations are being studied: Abaza, Karachai, Kabardino-Cherkes, Nogai. The analysis shows that in the post-reform years after the collapse of the USSR the question of publication of textbooks in native languages ​​was out of sight of the regional administration. As a result, educational institutions began to experience great difficulties related to the provision of textbooks. This was also true for Abaza language and literature textbooks.

During the Soviet period Abaza of North Caucasus in their religious life experienced the same difficulties as the entire population of the country, but Islam still continued to be one of the signs of national identity. In the post-Soviet period appeal to Islam has become more widespread and in some cases Islam serves as a factor of the consolidation of the people and supports the social equilibrium in Abaza community. In opinion polls related to the study of traditional Abaza culture held by us in the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia, special attention was paid to the approach of Abaza to religion. In a survey for rural respondents, more than a third of respondents gave detailed answers to the question about their attitude toward Islam.

Professor of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Anatoly Nesterovich Genko was a polyglot scholar, who studied and scientifically described Chechen, Ingush, Abkhazian, Abaza and other languages ​​of the peoples of the Caucasus. He was an author of the first edition of the monograph prepared for Abaza language. The manuscript of the book “Abaza language. Grammatical essay on Tapanta dialect” was ready in May 1934, but for some reasons it was released only 21 years later, in 1955. The author was arrested in late 1930s and died in prison in 1942. Anatoly Nesterovich made ​​two research trips to Abazin villages of Cherkess Autonomous Region in 1929 and 1933. He visited auls, collected materials, recorded them using specially designed Latin characters, processed, organized, commented and translated them into Russian. Most of them were folklore materials such as tales, proverbs, satirical poems, historical legends and some real cases. After his arrest and subsequent death all scientific materials and studies of the scientist were kept in the State Archive of Leningrad (now – St. Petersburg), and only a few years ago were discovered by a folklore scholar, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Abkhazia Zurab Dzhotovich Dzhapua.

In St. Petersburg publishing house “Composer” was released a collection of songs by Galina Gozheva “Music warmed my soul.” The author has included musical tunes of peoples of Karachay –Cherkessia, which she recorded.

In late 2014 the Department of Education and Culture of Abaza Municipal Region announced a theme-based contest among students of educational institutions for the best work on the history and culture of Abaza. Among topics there was a topic “On creation of Abaza writing.” Among the issues raised by the authors of essays on the subject was a pressing question: How many letters are in the Abaza alphabet? In answering this question, different sources give different numbers of 67, 68, 69, 74, etc.

According to some historical documents, in 1860-1861 migrants tried to return to their homeland after they could not “find the expected benefits and facilities under the auspices of the Ottoman Porte”. Only in 1861 from 8 to 10 thousand workers made an attempt to return home through Azerbaijan by land. But there neither home nor property remained; according to rules their lands had also been transferred to other owners. Caucasian Committee, believing that the “return from Turkey of homeless Caucasian immigrants, who spent all their possessions during their trips, could be dangerous for the region and would cause increase in robberies and looting”, offered to take all migrants returning by sea and, without delivering them to any of the Caucasian ports, send them to Don and settle them in the lands of the Don Cossacks or possibly in the province of the Russian Empire. Those who came across the land border were offered to be sent to Baku and from there by sea to Astrakhan (1).

Past Year of Culture will be best remembered for an extraordinary event in the cultural life of Karachay-Cherkessia – the first international contest “Constellation of Friendship”, which took place in November 2014 in Cherkessk. The competition was established and organized by the Delegation of the World Art Committee in the Caucasus and the International Academy of Art of Caucasus.

In the second half of the XIX century took place a relocation of a large group of Abaza to the territory of the Ottoman Empire and the religious factor became an important cause of this migration. The best preserved Abaza diaspora today is living in Turkey. Compact, ethnically homogeneous settlements of Abaza allowed preserving their language and traditional culture up to the present time; the Islamic factor played a positive role in the consolidation of the overseas community Abaza, though, to some extent, it has led to the phenomenon of a divided nation.

In Abkhazia, there are places with a large number of archaeological sites. One of them is the village Eschera. In this village there was detected a staging post of the lower paleolithic human, dolmens, cromlechs, monuments of antiquity. In 1977, archaeologist Shamba G. discovered here an ancient tomb and among the many finds he found a black-figure amphora with a lid and two handles. Amphora was restored at the Leningrad State Hermitage Museum, and transferred to the permanent exhibition in the Abkhazian State Museum.